Welcome to Cloud Dragon

We are given something new each moment, we are given a new life each moment, to be awake in. No giving up on us! Here, try again. Have another moment ... and another. Take a lifetime if you need it.

Welcome to Cloud Dragon : The Joan Sutherland Dharma Works. Our mission is to make the groundbreaking teachings of Joan Sutherland, Roshi widely available in written, audio, and video forms. Her work is a fresh imagining of the Zen koan tradition, rooted in its original understanding of all of life as a process of awakening. For Joan Sutherland, the first woman roshi in her lineage in the Americas, endarkenment is as essential as enlightenment to awakening, and much of her work is an exploration of the power held in the radiance of the dark.

The Dharma Works is the place to access Joan Sutherland's published writings, videos, and the audio archive of her talks, as well as a growing body of transcripts of those talks. For a tax-deductible contribution, you can subscribe to the Dharma Works and receive talks and other material from the archives every month.

Affiliated with the Dharma Works is Awakened Life, the community in Santa Fe, New Mexico where Joan Sutherland taught until her retirement in 2014. Its motto is Enlightenment as a conspiracy of friends. Awakened Life continues to meet regularly; for more information, click here.

Zen ... Koans ... Awakening ... Endarkenment ... Where to begin?
Here are links to a few of Joan Sutherland's essays and audio recordings that introduce the philosophy and practices that are essential to our Way Read More